It's been a big week here at the Phillips house.
MOMS started on last Thursday and Bible Study started Tuesday. Both were great! I got to reconnect with my MOMs group and meet a (mostly) new group of ladies for this new study. I'm excited about what this semester will bring!
Last Friday Cyndy and Abby made an impromptu trip up from Houston to have some cousin time. It was so fun and I didn't have to leave home. They played with the costumes, the kitchen, the tools and so much more. The kids love Abby and no one wanted the day to end. Wonderful memories!
Hannah turned 6 months on Sunday. My big girl! She had her check up today. She is 16lbs 1oz, 27 1/2 inches (super long) and has a big head still like the rest of us. She can sit up, plays with her brothers, laughs, tried to eat everything except actual baby food and as of Monday, she is crawling! I had a very rough Monday (a pull-up blew up in the washing machine), so I kept having to leave Hannah to play while I dealt with things. I'd come back shortly and find her in a whole different area and still on her stomach (as opposed to when she rolls places). When I was making dinner I peeked around the corner and caught her on all fours crawling across the floor! I frantically went for my phone to record it, but she was more or less done when I found it, so I only got a couple of scoots on tape. I thank God for her and the progress she is making. Brothers are thrilled at her crawling, but less thrilled at how quickly she can get their toys now. It's a whole new ball game. She's also started pulling up on things. No toy (in fact nothing) is safe! I love her so much!
William is finally saying his "r"s. He has always said them like "w"s but as he is about to be 5 in August, I am glad (and sad because it's cute) that his speech is developing. He is not perfect, but I know in time he will have it down in no time. His imagination is blossoming also. Right now most adventures involve super heroes and Star Wars (neither of which they have actually really seen), and it is a joy to watch.
My parents came up for the day yesterday. We had lunch at Chuy's, played at the house all afternoon and joined Francis for dinner at Dickey's BBQ. It was simply delightful. Robert wanted my dad to read every book in the house (so did William). My mom brought them a new counting/fruit/sorting toy that they played with for the better part of an hour. Hannah wanted to both crawl and cuddle which my parents enjoyed very much. My mom played board games with the boys. I wouldn't have changed a thing, except to make more hours in the day.
A minute ago Robert told me he needed to go potty, ran to the potty, got on it and went! I was about to tell him that he needed to go, but he managed to tell me this time. It's a big step. I told him when he told me and went on his own like this we would get ice cream. I guess that day is today. I'm so happy! Normally he will go when you tell him, but not want to stop playing when he needs to go. He is growing up so fast. He's my little comedian and brings me laughter when I need it most. He knows the value of a happy heart, and I hope he always holds onto that.
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I just received word that Francis's grandfather (mom's father) passed away today. Two Sundays ago, he met Jesus and asked him to be the Lord and Savior of his life. We are saddened by his passing, but overjoyed that He is with the Father. Please pray for the rest of the family in this time that his decision to follow Christ would be made known and impact those who knew him. Also pray for comfort. Thank you.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
January 20, 2016
Friday was a big day, the kids got to see Francis's lab. They were very excited, though the trip didn't go as planned. First off the boys skipped nap (I tried), so when we arrived on campus at 3:30, Robert had passed out in the car. Francis carried him as all 5 of us walked over to the Lab. William was super interested in everything. Francis patiently explained things and I took a few pictures. It was a nice time. Well, one of the demonstrations involved a heat gun (think high powered hair dryer). When it was set back down (as we were getting ready to leave), William reached for the same spot on the table and the heat gun and Williams hand met mid air with the hot tip brushing across the edge of William's right hand. The next couple of minutes are a blur, but as William's skin on his hand blistered and turned white, we knew we would be heading to a doctor. We tried the nearby urgent clinic, but they quickly turned us away and sent us to the ER of the hospital (which was thankfully also close). There was no wait, and after an examination, it was determined to be mostly a second degree burn with a little first degree burn around the edges. The whole burn is roughly the size of a quarter, but I know it hurts. we got him all fixed up with burn cream and bandages and brought him home. At the end of all of it (after screaming a crying for an extended period), William announced, "This was a great day! I got to see Daddy's lab and even though that accident happened, I'm going to be ok!" He's a great kid. They all are. The blister is still deflating and hasn't popped. The doctor said it will be around a week before he can leave it unbandaged.
Robert still has a great affinity for the green Mr. Potato head light saber and we lost it yesterday. Not good. Poor kid went around all day (even after we looked for HOURS) saying "Yoda" (what he calls the light saber) sadly and whimpering. It was sad enough, Francis and I actually went ahead an ordered another "Luke Frywalker" so we have a back up in case this one is never found. It was cheap, and he's worth it. I'm still hoping it turns up though. Robert's love of singing has developed even more since Christmas. I have to keep on my toes, because he will start singing and want me to join in. It takes me a while sometimes to figure out the song he is trying to sing, but I usually get it. His two favorites are happy birthday and Rudolf the Red nosed reindeer, but he'll try to sing any random song he's heard if the fancy strikes him. He's in underwear more and more and having less accidents all the time. He's my cuddle bug and wants to be touching/loving on/cuddling me in some shape or form most of the day. It love that he loves me and he has even started to tell me so even when I don't say it first. Talk about melting my heart!
Hannah is sitting up for longer periods and doing her best to keep up with the boys. She tries to chase them in the walker, but still has a ways to go. Her grabbing is spot on. I can't have anything within reach of her without finding at least one (if not two) little hands on it in the blink of an eye. Everything goes in her mouth...except baby food. Baby food is met with surprise and disgust at first and if I continue, crying. She likes to gnaw on things, so she will suck and chew on anything I but in the mesh teether. Banana's, grapes and bread seem to be her favorites. She's got an opinion about it and she won't let you forget it, but she is still easy going as ever. Not sure how that's possible, but that's the way it is. Oh! Although she occasionally says "ma" or "mama", mostly still makes random (though frequent) sounds. On Monday when Francis was leaving, I was standing by the door holding Hannah. Francis said goodbye, kissed me and then said goodbye to Hannah. She reached for him with so intentionally that I was surprised (usually her arms just wave about) and said "Da!" with delight. Francis and I both smiled and encouraged her to do it again, but she just laughed and started babbling. She knows her daddy. It totally made his day.
One last thing. We cut cable and are now just using an antennae for TV. We got a Tivo to record shows and have access to Netflix and Amazon Prime so don't feel too bad for us. It's saving us close to $70 a month and we are trying to spend less. I'm missing some of my cable shows, but I know I'll forget about them soon enough. The biggest draw back is that ABC (the network channel) is not coming in like it should. Sometimes it's perfectly clear and other times it's a pixilated mess. Francis has been working on the problem, but so far no solution has worked. It seems silly (so silly I probably should delete this paragraph), but I do want to find a reasonable solution. Ok, no more complaining for me!
Till next time!
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
January 13, 2016
We seem to be adjusting to the new year ok. I'm ready for things to start up again though. I like having a schedule.
Hannah and I were sick the past couple of days, but are doing better now. Francis took some of each day to work and do his research from home so I could get some rest. It's hard to be waylaid, but I needed to stop and regroup and recuperate. Thanks honey. Yesterday morning while I was feeding the dogs, William sprayed Robert in the face with Shout (the stain pretreater) that I was using while doing laundry. We spent the rest of the day flushing out Robert's eyes (he kept rubbing them) and even made a call to poison control. Finally after a good long flushing (the 4th time) and making him not rub it for an hour, his eye started looking better. Yeah, yesterday was rough.
Hannah is sitting up more and more, talking more and more, making sure you pay attention to her, grabbing things with greater accuracy, eating as much table food as she can get her hands on (but baby food is not so desirable), mastering the walker, standing holding onto my fingers, and getting around by a combination of rolling and dragging herself with her arms. she is keeping us on our toes! the boys are so kind and patient with her (she has ruined a couple of their things on accident). They do things to make her laugh and try to include her in their games when possible. Mostly she likes to watch them play and the love to have her watch. Such happy kids, these three.
Robert is in underwear all the time except overnight. He is doing great. I think he's had one accident all week and that was somewhat my fault. He even went twice for his teachers on Sunday. They and we were both very excited and Robert was very proud of himself. His favorite thing to do right now is pretend to be Yoda and hold a small green light-saber belonging to one of the Mr. Potato Heads. It's super cute and his imagination is fun to watch. William plays the "bad guy" and they have mini duels. Someone is bound to get hurt eventually, but for now they having a ball.
William had his first ice skating lesson last night. We got a deal on 8 lessons and William is super excited to learn how to move like daddy. Francis said he did great. He learned to stand up from sitting on the ice and moved along the ice on a dotted line. Francis said he was miles ahead of where the other kids are and took tons of pictures. He was one proud dad, to say the least. Hockey here we come!
I am attending a meeting on Friday the 22nd called Homeschooling 101. Pray that I would have direction on if this is where God is leading us for school next year (and if not, where we are supposed to be). Thank you in advance.
That's all for now. The fun never stops around here and I must re-enter the fray!
Hannah and I were sick the past couple of days, but are doing better now. Francis took some of each day to work and do his research from home so I could get some rest. It's hard to be waylaid, but I needed to stop and regroup and recuperate. Thanks honey. Yesterday morning while I was feeding the dogs, William sprayed Robert in the face with Shout (the stain pretreater) that I was using while doing laundry. We spent the rest of the day flushing out Robert's eyes (he kept rubbing them) and even made a call to poison control. Finally after a good long flushing (the 4th time) and making him not rub it for an hour, his eye started looking better. Yeah, yesterday was rough.
Hannah is sitting up more and more, talking more and more, making sure you pay attention to her, grabbing things with greater accuracy, eating as much table food as she can get her hands on (but baby food is not so desirable), mastering the walker, standing holding onto my fingers, and getting around by a combination of rolling and dragging herself with her arms. she is keeping us on our toes! the boys are so kind and patient with her (she has ruined a couple of their things on accident). They do things to make her laugh and try to include her in their games when possible. Mostly she likes to watch them play and the love to have her watch. Such happy kids, these three.
Robert is in underwear all the time except overnight. He is doing great. I think he's had one accident all week and that was somewhat my fault. He even went twice for his teachers on Sunday. They and we were both very excited and Robert was very proud of himself. His favorite thing to do right now is pretend to be Yoda and hold a small green light-saber belonging to one of the Mr. Potato Heads. It's super cute and his imagination is fun to watch. William plays the "bad guy" and they have mini duels. Someone is bound to get hurt eventually, but for now they having a ball.
William had his first ice skating lesson last night. We got a deal on 8 lessons and William is super excited to learn how to move like daddy. Francis said he did great. He learned to stand up from sitting on the ice and moved along the ice on a dotted line. Francis said he was miles ahead of where the other kids are and took tons of pictures. He was one proud dad, to say the least. Hockey here we come!
I am attending a meeting on Friday the 22nd called Homeschooling 101. Pray that I would have direction on if this is where God is leading us for school next year (and if not, where we are supposed to be). Thank you in advance.
That's all for now. The fun never stops around here and I must re-enter the fray!
Thursday, January 7, 2016
January 7, 2016
Happy New Year!
It's been a great 2016 so far. Non of us made it to midnight New Years Eve without falling asleep. We put the kids to bed after we watched a Netflix cartoon countdown and had some sparkling grape juice. We had a couple poppers and threw confetti. I think Francis and I enjoyed it even more than the kids.
New Years day we had donuts for breakfast. We hung around the house and enjoyed each other. Hannah got the hang of her walker, moving it all over the place at will. She also started sitting up more, but still falls over after a while.
Saturday Francis's parents came up and brought us the Christmas decorations that we bought on clearance (including a very large, very cool tree). We all met up with Cyndy, Chris and Abby at Chick-fil-a for lunch which turned into a three hour period of laughter and fun. We thought only an hour had passed, so we were quite surprised when we got back in the car! We are going to try to cut cable in order to save money, so Francis and his Dad ran cables and mounted an antenna.
Sunday afternoon (after church), we all attended the birthday party of the boys' friend Jackson. It was a construction party and we all had a great time. Monday we started "school" again. The boys got a bunch of new school supplies for Christmas and they were ready to go. I am getting a good system working, and I hope it holds. The boys play and I get everything set up, then I baby wear Hannah (who refuses to be left out) so I have both hands to help the boys. We do calendar together, and then both boys do their designated tasks (it takes them 15 minutes at most to do them) and then they get to choose another "school" task to do. I don't push them or make them do it, but they love it. We haven't officially settled on Homeschooling for next year, but if they keep up this enthusiasm, it will make the choice easier. It is so fun to watch them learn and have fun.
Yesterday we went to the library where William made me read the same (semi-long) book over and over before we checked it out and brought it home. When we got home he asked me to read it again. I smiled and told him that he might be ready for chapter books soon. He asked what a chapter book was and then said he wanted me to rad him one. I waited until nap time pretty sure that a book with no pictures would put him to sleep. I chose The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- one of my personal favorites and kid-friendly too. to my surprise William didn't fall asleep. At the end of each chapter he would ask me a bunch of questions about the story and then say, "next chapter please!" I eventually had to take a break, but he kept asking me between tasks so I would read a chapter here and a chapter there. At bed time I realized that there were only 10 paged left...so we finished reading. He LOVED it. Today he begged me to read the next story (A Horse and His Boy). He wanted to read it instead of going to the Children's Museum (we went to the Children's Museum because everyone needed to run off some energy). We are 4 chapters into the book now. He begged me to go on just now, but my jaw hurts! At the pace he wants me to go, we'd read all 7 of the Chronicles of Narnia in a week! He just sits and listens with his eyes transfixed on some far off place. He's certainly my child if he loves stories so much.
Robert is doing ok with his cloth underwear. He does the pee just fine, but I still have to watch him sometimes for the other. It's hit or miss and depends on how much fun he is having. He'll get it eventually. He is getting very chatty about everything. It's fun to hear his thoughts. He also told on William the other day. William owed up to it and even congratulated Robert for telling me (which was pretty funny). Now William can't get away with pushing his brother around, that's for sure.
Hannah girl is growing so fast. She had her first food on Tuesday (other than the mashed potatoes my mom gave her on Christmas day). She had Sweet potatoes. She didn't seem very enthusiastic and shuddered with each spoonful. she has since tried bread (in a mesh chew thing), bananas, apples and regular potatoes (also in the mesh thing), and a taste of peanut butter off my finger. She seems to prefer the sweet. We are trying to give her more "table food" type baby food and hope to help her transition more natural to eating with us (which will also save time and money on baby food). She wants to be like her brothers so much, I have a feeling straight baby food won't cut it for long anyway.
We LOVED having Francis home last week and even this week since classes haven't started, his schedule has been a little more flexible. That has been the best thing about Francis going back to school: the kids and I get more time with him. He's the best.
That's it from our corner of the world.
It's been a great 2016 so far. Non of us made it to midnight New Years Eve without falling asleep. We put the kids to bed after we watched a Netflix cartoon countdown and had some sparkling grape juice. We had a couple poppers and threw confetti. I think Francis and I enjoyed it even more than the kids.
New Years day we had donuts for breakfast. We hung around the house and enjoyed each other. Hannah got the hang of her walker, moving it all over the place at will. She also started sitting up more, but still falls over after a while.
Saturday Francis's parents came up and brought us the Christmas decorations that we bought on clearance (including a very large, very cool tree). We all met up with Cyndy, Chris and Abby at Chick-fil-a for lunch which turned into a three hour period of laughter and fun. We thought only an hour had passed, so we were quite surprised when we got back in the car! We are going to try to cut cable in order to save money, so Francis and his Dad ran cables and mounted an antenna.
Sunday afternoon (after church), we all attended the birthday party of the boys' friend Jackson. It was a construction party and we all had a great time. Monday we started "school" again. The boys got a bunch of new school supplies for Christmas and they were ready to go. I am getting a good system working, and I hope it holds. The boys play and I get everything set up, then I baby wear Hannah (who refuses to be left out) so I have both hands to help the boys. We do calendar together, and then both boys do their designated tasks (it takes them 15 minutes at most to do them) and then they get to choose another "school" task to do. I don't push them or make them do it, but they love it. We haven't officially settled on Homeschooling for next year, but if they keep up this enthusiasm, it will make the choice easier. It is so fun to watch them learn and have fun.
Yesterday we went to the library where William made me read the same (semi-long) book over and over before we checked it out and brought it home. When we got home he asked me to read it again. I smiled and told him that he might be ready for chapter books soon. He asked what a chapter book was and then said he wanted me to rad him one. I waited until nap time pretty sure that a book with no pictures would put him to sleep. I chose The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- one of my personal favorites and kid-friendly too. to my surprise William didn't fall asleep. At the end of each chapter he would ask me a bunch of questions about the story and then say, "next chapter please!" I eventually had to take a break, but he kept asking me between tasks so I would read a chapter here and a chapter there. At bed time I realized that there were only 10 paged left...so we finished reading. He LOVED it. Today he begged me to read the next story (A Horse and His Boy). He wanted to read it instead of going to the Children's Museum (we went to the Children's Museum because everyone needed to run off some energy). We are 4 chapters into the book now. He begged me to go on just now, but my jaw hurts! At the pace he wants me to go, we'd read all 7 of the Chronicles of Narnia in a week! He just sits and listens with his eyes transfixed on some far off place. He's certainly my child if he loves stories so much.
Robert is doing ok with his cloth underwear. He does the pee just fine, but I still have to watch him sometimes for the other. It's hit or miss and depends on how much fun he is having. He'll get it eventually. He is getting very chatty about everything. It's fun to hear his thoughts. He also told on William the other day. William owed up to it and even congratulated Robert for telling me (which was pretty funny). Now William can't get away with pushing his brother around, that's for sure.
Hannah girl is growing so fast. She had her first food on Tuesday (other than the mashed potatoes my mom gave her on Christmas day). She had Sweet potatoes. She didn't seem very enthusiastic and shuddered with each spoonful. she has since tried bread (in a mesh chew thing), bananas, apples and regular potatoes (also in the mesh thing), and a taste of peanut butter off my finger. She seems to prefer the sweet. We are trying to give her more "table food" type baby food and hope to help her transition more natural to eating with us (which will also save time and money on baby food). She wants to be like her brothers so much, I have a feeling straight baby food won't cut it for long anyway.
We LOVED having Francis home last week and even this week since classes haven't started, his schedule has been a little more flexible. That has been the best thing about Francis going back to school: the kids and I get more time with him. He's the best.
That's it from our corner of the world.
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